MAKING A DOCTOR: Dr. Leah Palifka reflects on working through pregnancy as her due date nears

Sunday

Sep 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 28, 2008 at 4:12 PM

Dr. Leah Palifka, who is the hospital’s first doctor to have a baby during the residency, delivered him at Signature.

Jessica Scarpati

Years ago, Dr. Leah Palifka built a small wooden bookshelf. Nothing fancy, but practical and sturdy and done all by herself.

Her father, a general contractor, had taught her how to build furniture. It’s kind of a hobby — or it was.

That was before she left her engineering job, graduated from medical school and was accepted into the first-year transitional residency program at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital.

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It was also before she learned she and her husband of six years, Bob, would be having a baby boy.

“I haven’t done a piece in a while,” she dismissed.

That little wooden bookshelf has moved with her through various apartments and condos, most recently back to her parents home in Brockton, where she and Bob live until she must move again for her career — to Utah — next summer.

But the bookshelf is no longer hers. It sat in the blue and white room for the baby, waiting for him to arrive.

Zachary Michael Palifka was born six days early on Wednesday, Sept. 24. He weighed 6 pounds and 7 ounces and measured 19 inches.

Palifka, who is the hospital’s first doctor to have a baby during the residency, delivered him at Signature.

When asked earlier this month until what point she would work, she replied, “Until the contractions.”

“I’m just afraid I’m not going to want to come back,” Palifka said. “I know it’s going to be hard.”

That’s the part she most fears, she said — saying goodbye to her newborn son after a six-week maternity leave to return to six- to 16-hour days at the hospital.

Being pregnant through the first three months of residency, being exposed to who-knows-what in the wards, carrying an extra 25 pounds, catching several colds — by comparison, it’s nothing, she said.

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She is convinced walking around the hospital all day and being on her feet might even be making her feel better.

“It’s been fine during the day, but then I go home and I crash,” Palifka said. “Maybe I’m a little more tired, but everyone is tired.”

That attitude sounds about “normal” for her, said her father, Joe Platenik, the one who taught her how to build that bookshelf.